DOMINIC ROCO (GIBSON)

DOMINIC ROCO (GIBSON)

is the son of legendary Filipino film actor, Bembol Roco (whose most current film, Brillante Mendoza’s THY WOMB, won at the Venice Film Festival), and the younger identical twin brother of Felix Roco. He started acting when he was 15 years old, featured in the countless television shows like QPIDS, SUPER INGGO, FANTASTIKIDS, SUPERTWINS, PANDAY KIDS, SISID, LEGACY, MAKAPILING KANG MULI, and he is now busy shooting INDIO. He has starred in the films OTSO-OTSO PAMELA-MELA WAN, SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL XI, Joel Lamangan’s MANO PO 6, Danny Anonuevo’s REKRUT (Montreal World Film Festival, Star Awards nominee, and Cinemalaya Film Festival winner), and Dante Nico Garcia’s MADALING ARAW, MAHABANG GABI. ANG NAWAWALA (WHAT ISN’T THERE) is Dominic’s first leading role.

ANNICKA DOLONIUS (ENID)

ANNICKA DOLONIUS (ENID)

started acting when she was 19, starring in Auraeus Solito’s award-winning PISAY (PHILIPPINE SCIENCE) (winning at the Vesoul Asian Film Festival, Cinemalaya Film Festival, and Star Awards) her first role garnering her a Golden Screen Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress. Being of Swedish-Filipino descent, she then did music video, TV commercial, and modeling work for the next few years. After doing ANG NAWAWALA (WHAT ISN’T THERE), she signed a 5-year exclusive contract under MSB Talent Management and with GMA Artist Center, one of the biggest television networks in the Philippines. Her latest TV appearances include ONE TRUE LOVE and PAROA. She is currently filming her next indie project, Jade Castro’s political comedy called JUANA CHANGE THE MOVIE.

FELIX ROCO (JAMIE)

FELIX ROCO (JAMIE)

is older than his identical twin, Dominic, by two minutes. They started their acting career both at 15 years old: both on all the same television shows, but Felix got his feature film breaks earlier. He starred in Roman Olivares’ UPCAT, which then led to his role in Pepe Diokno’s Venice Film Festival winning ENGKWENTRO (CLASH), earning him Best Actor nominations from the Golden Screen Awards and the Gawad Urian Awards in 2010. He continues to guest-star on a variety of television shows like DARNA, 100 DAYS TO HEAVEN, ROSALKA, and ANGELITO: BATANG AMA. He was also in Joel Lamangan’s multi-award winning SAGRADA FAMILIA and DUKOT (Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards, Film Academy of the Philippines, Star Awards). He was recently in Adolfo Alix’s MATER DOLOROSA (Cinema One Originals), and will be seen in Mark Meily’s EL PRESIDENTE in December (Metro Manila Film Festival).

DAWN ZULUETA (ESME)

DAWN ZULUETA (ESME)

is a legendary Filipino film-television actress, host, and commercial model, who holds the distinction of winning BOTH the Filipino Academy of Movies Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) awards for Best Lead Actress for Carlos Siguion Reyna’s HIHINTAYIN KITA SA LANGIT (Bangkok’s ASEAN Film Festival) and Best Supporting Actress for Laurice Guillen’s UNA KANG NAGING AKIN in 1991. She was also declared by the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation Entertainment Award as the Box Office Queen of 1994 for starring in that year’s highest-grossing film: Carlo J. Caparas’ THE MAGGIE DELA RIVA STORY (GOD…WHY ME?) For her 1993 film, Joe Mari Avellana’s KUNG MAWAWALA KA PA, she also won Best Actress from the Metro Manila Film Festival and the FAMAS Awards. In 1994, she won Best Actress from the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) Star Awards for her role in Jose Javier Reyes’ BUHAY NG BUHAY KO. In her career, she has also received multiple nominations (for both lead and supporting roles) from the prestigious Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP) Gawad Urian Awards.

In 1996, she was cited in The Manila Times as the 10th Best Filipino Actress from 1970 to 1996. In addition, in 1999, The Manila Standard named her as one of the Top 10 Actresses of the 1990s.

Dawn took a respite from films after her 1997 movie Emmanuel Borlaza’s TO SAUDI WITH LOVE. Six years later, she made her comeback in the 2003 family ensemble-drama FILIPINAS, going back to television acting. In 2010, she returned to the musical theater stage after 12 years, taking the lead role in Stephen Sondheim’s A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. She currently stars in the #1 TV show in the Philippines, on ABS-CBN’S WALANG HANGGAN and will be doing more films, commercials, and TV shows in the next year.

BOBOY GARROVILLO (WES)

BOBOY GARROVILLO (WES)

is a singer, songwriter, and member of the celebrated and multi-awarded Philippine pop group, the APO Hiking Society, who have released 25 albums. They have toured all over the world, even having a sold out performance at Carnegie Hall. He has been acting since the 1970s, his most notable role being the bumbling Yakuza agent in Mike de Leon’s award-winning comedy, KAKABAKABA KA BA?, where he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Gawad Urian Awards. He hosted the primetime TV variety show, SANGLINGGO NA PO SILA, which ran for 9 years, and did theater work, doing the lead roles in the Tanghalang Pilipino stage plays of PINOY AGONISTES and ANG SINUNGALING. He is currently acting in various television dramas like DIVA, ALICE BUNGISNGIS & HER WONDER WALIS, ASO NI SAN ROQUE, and has starred Dante Nico Garcia’s MADALING ARAW, MAHABANG GABI and Wenn V. Deramas’s THIS GUY’S IN LOVE WITH U MARE! In 2012, a musical film inspired by and using APO Hiking Society songs was also just released, Chris Martinez’s I DO IDOO BIDOO: HETO NAPO SILA!

ALCHRIS GALURA (TEDDY)

ALCHRIS GALURA (TEDDY)

started acting on television when he was 10 years old, but his breakthrough performance was when he was 13, starring in Mario O’Hara’s acclaimed WOMAN OF BREAKWATER, and earning himself nominations for Best Child Actor from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences and Best Supporting Actor from the Gawad Urian Awards. In 2005, he was nominated Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Screen Awards, this time for Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil’s MGA PUSANG GALA (Best First Feature at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival). A year later, he won Best Actor at the Cinemalaya Film Festival and the Golden Screen Awards for his role as an Ifugao boy dreaming of a pair of shoes in Benji Garcia’s BATAD SA PAANG PALAY. In 2007, he got another Gawad Urian nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Jade Castro’s award-winning ENDO. He has also starred in Rommel Sales’ SLOW FADE (Metro Manila Film Festival), Lee Meily & Nelson Caguila’s PINTAKASI (Golden Screen Awards and Metro Manila Film Festival winner), Joaquin Valdes’ DAGIM (Star Awards, Gawad Urian Awards), and DannyAnonuevo’s REKRUT (Montreal World Film Festival nominee). Currently, he is acting in television shows and mainstream films.

MERCEDES CABRAL (SIMONE)

MERCEDES CABRAL (SIMONE)

is most known for her work with Brillante Mendoza, her first film was SERVICE (Cannes Film Festival) in 2008. She then did Mendoza’s KINATAY (Cannes Film Festival Best Director winner), CAPTIVE (Berlin International Film Festival), and THY WOMB (Venice Film Festival 2012). She was also in Park Chan-Wook’s critically acclaimed THIRST (Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner). She has starred in over 40 films, more notably Chris Martinez’s THE WOMAN IN THE SEPTIC TANK (Asian Film Awards, Vancouver Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival), Erick Salud’s LIGO NA U LAPIT NA ME (Golden Screen and Cinemalaya Award winner), and Alvin Yapan’s THE RAPTURE OF FE (Cairo International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival). In 2008, she was voted Most Beautiful Actress at Cannes, and she is also the only Filipino actress who is a member of the Asia Pacific Actors Network at Pusan. In 2011, she was nominated for Best Actress at the Gawad Urian Awards for her role in Alvin Yapan’s GAYUMA (PILGRIM LOVERS). This year, she will be shooting a film in Denmark with Frederikke Aspock.

KELVIN YU (MAC)

KELVIN YU (MAC)

has been the bassist for the popular rock band, the Itchyworms, for the last 15 years. In 2006, they won Album of the Year for their second record, “Noontime Show.” In 2007, they won the Best Alternative Music award at the 19th Awit Awards for their hit single “Akin Ka Na Lang.” His first role was as a Chinese henchman in Mario Cornejo’s 2005 Cinemalaya Film Festival and Gawad Urian Award- winning film, BIG TIME. He then acted as the title character of Marie Jamora’s Columbia University thesis film, DEXTER CALLIOPE AND THE ADARNA BIRD. He also plays bass for his other band, the 9-piece hip-hop juggernaut, Corporate Lo-Fi, and is often confused by IMDb as the Asian-American actor, the other “Kelvin Yu.”

JENNY JAMORA (COREY)

JENNY JAMORA (COREY)

is an acclaimed actress in the Philippine theater scene. She was nominated for an Aliw Award for her performance in THE BLUE ROOM (New Voice Company) and has traveled around Asia for performances in THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, ASPECTS OF LOVE (NVC), and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Atlantis Productions). Most recently, she was a lead in the world stage debut of Paul Fleischman’s MIND’S EYE. She took acting courses with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and The Actors Centre in London, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York. She heads Talent Development for the Philippine Theater Actors Guild and is launching her own theater company in July.

MARC ABAYA (MICHAEL)

MARC ABAYA (MICHAEL)

is the eldest son of one of the most important film directors in the history of the Philippines, Marilou Diaz-Abaya. He started out as a musician for his high school band, Shirley Beans, before he became the frontman and guitarist for one of the most successful and multi-awarded Filipino bands, Sandwich, in 1998. From 2003-2007, he was a popular VJ for MTV Philippines when he decided to form another band, Kjwan (who won the 2007 IKON Southeast Asian music competition and an International Achievement Recognition Award from the Awit Awards). He left Sandwich in 2005, and started acting in films and television commercials. Since then, he has starred in Mo Zee’s ELEGIE, Ming Kai Leung’s THREE BOYS, Mateo Guez’s OFF WORLD (2010 ReelWorld Film Festival winner for Outstanding Canadian Feature Film), Rommel Sales’ i-LIBINGS, Jerrold Tarog’s ASWANG, and Cesar Montanos’ THE TURNING CRADLE. In 2010, he won Best Supporting Actor in the Cinema One Originals Film Festival for his role as a charismatic tribe leader in Joaquin Valdes’ DAGIM. He is currently doing very well as a television soap actor.

SABRINA MAN (PROMISE)

SABRINA MAN (PROMISE)

started out as Best Talent in Little Miss Laguna as well as Li’l Earth Angel-Air in Miss Philippines Earth when she was 7 years old. Her first film was Paul Sta. Ana & Alvin Yapan’s HULING PASADA (Cinemalaya Film Festival winner) in 2008. Since then, she has been nominated as Best Child Performer by the Metro Manila Film Festival for her roles in Rico Gutierrez’s SHAKE RATTLE & ROLL XI, Joel Lamangan’s MANO PO 6, and Jose Javier Reyes’ MY HOUSEHUSBAND: IKAW NA! She has been in the television shows PIDOL’S WONDERLAND, LUNA MYSTIKA, DARNA, BLUSANG ITIM, BANTATAY, PANDAY KIDS, ALICE BUNGISNGIS & HER WONDER WALIS. She is currently one of the hosts of the hit kids show, TROPANG POTCHI.

is an award-winning music video director from the Philippines, who has also been a drummer for her bands Boldstar and Blast Ople for more than a decade. Since 2001, she has directed 45 music videos for multi-awarded Filipino musicians, which have had over 30 nominations and 8 wins from the MTV Pilipinas Awards, NU107 Rock Awards, Awit Awards, and the MYX Music Awards. In 2005, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film from Columbia University, NYC.

As a Director, her undergraduate short film adaptation of a Roald Dahl short story, PATA ‘YAN/PATAYAN (A POUND OF FLESH/THE KILLING), won Best Narrative Short at the Ateneo Video Open. Her Columbia experimental short film, DIRTY LAUNDRY, was in exhibition at the Cinemanila International Film Festival. Her 2004 Columbia short film, QUEZON CITY, about a man who keeps his life in street syndicates hidden from his unsuspecting wife, was in competition at the Cinemanila International Film Festival, the University of the Philippines Cineastes INDEO Short Film Festival (winning Best Actor), and was in exhibition for IFP West’s Buzz Cuts in NYC and the Women In Film Festival in Singapore. In 2007, she produced Ming Kai Leung’s thesis short film, THREE BOYS, and in 2008, she challenged herself by directing the first season of PROJECT RUNWAY PHILIPPINES, building the show from the ground up. The show got nominated for Best Adaptation of an Existing Format at the 14th Asian Television Awards. She is currently an in-house director at Gung Ho Films, and has been a film teacher at the Ateneo de Manila University for the past five years. WHAT ISN’T THERE is Jamora’s debut feature film, which won grants from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. In the 8th Cinemalaya Film Festival last July 2012, it won the Audience Choice Award, as well as Best Original Score in the New Breed Category.

RAMON DE VEYRA (CO-WRITER/CO-PRODUCER/CO-MUSIC SUPERVISOR)

RAMON DE VEYRA (CO-WRITER/CO-PRODUCER/CO-MUSIC SUPERVISOR)

has been writing professionally since he was 16. He has written many articles for both newspapers (mainly The Philippine Star, the nation’s leading daily paper) and magazines (currently he is contributing editor to Esquire Philippines). He has written for television, both reality shows (the first season of PROJECT RUNWAY PHILIPPINES, the lifestyle magazine show MAD MAD FUN) and fictional narrative (the college band dramedy RAKISTA). He has written several film scripts, two of which were produced, and is at work on the next.

MING KAI LEUNG (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY )

MING KAI LEUNG (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY )

was born and raised in Hong Kong, and obtained his MFA degree in Film at Columbia University, NYC. In 2009, he attended the Asian Film Academy and won an Outstanding Performance Award presented by Technicolor. His first feature as a DP, MUNDANE HISTORY, was part of the New Current Competition of Pusan Film Festival 2009. It also won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2010, Transilvania Trophy at the Trans Transilvania International Film Festival, Grand Prix at Era New Horizon International Film Festival, Poland. It was also part of the Debut Cinematographers’ Competition at Plus Camerimage Film Festival in Poland. The past year, he has been shooting feature films in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and New York.

is Co-owner and Executive Producer of Brainchild Creative Solutions Corporation. He is an alumnus of the Communication program of the Ateneo de Manila University where he received the Dean’s Award for Screen Arts. His early films earned him awards from The KODAK Filmschool Competition, the Gawad CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines), and the Ateneo Video Open. He has spent the last ten years directing and producing music videos, commercials, and corporate videos for Brainchild and other production groups. He has also produced TV serials namely Pesos & Sense (GMA NEWS TV) and Street Smart (National Geographic Channel). He also produced Rommel Sales’ SLOW FADE (Metro Manila Film Festival, Cinemabuhay International Grant).

JOHN SY (PRODUCER)

JOHN SY (PRODUCER)

is a not-so accidental movie producer. He is a serial entrepreneur with exposure in Southeast Asia and North America, with start-up experience as a founder and/or a proactive investor. He has just launched Roughcutblender.com, which is a new blend in films coming soon.

TRINKA LAT (PRODUCER/PRODUCTION DESIGNER/SET DECORATOR)

TRINKA LAT (PRODUCER/PRODUCTION DESIGNER/SET DECORATOR)

is Co-owner of Brainchild Creative Solutions Corporation, as well as a production designer, set decorator and interior stylist. She has done PD for Jim Libiran’s HAPPYLAND (Cinemanila International Film Festival 2010, London Reel Gate International Film Festival 2012), Cesar Apolinario’s BANAL (Metro Manila Film Festival winner, Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences nominee), and Quark Henares’ SUPERNOYPI and ‘WAG KANG LILINGON. She produced the National Geographic Philippines’ TV show, STREET SMART. Internationally, she has done set dressing work in Germany, working on Tom Tykwer’s THREE and Leander Haussman’s HOTEL LUX. She also production designed the National Geographic USA documentary, THE HUMAN FAMILY TREE, and art directed the Discovery Channel UK documentaries, I SHOULDN’T BE ALIVE and MY KID SURIVIVED.

DAPHNE O. CHIU (PRODUCER/LINE PRODUCER)

DAPHNE O. CHIU (PRODUCER/LINE PRODUCER)

is an alumni of The International Academy for Film and Television, Cebu. She was Associate Producer for Ian Loreños’ THE LEAVING (Cinemalaya Best Cinematography, Best Production Design & Best Supporting Actress 2010), LP/PM for Rommel Sales’ i-LIBINGS (i-FUNERALS). She was Producer/Production Manager for Antoinette Jadaone’s SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM LILIA CUNTAPAY (Cinema One Originals 2011 Awards, Gawad Urian Awards, 17th Busan International Film Festival, Luang Prabang Film Festival, and the Udine Far East Film Festival. Currently, she is in pre-production for three new feature films.